NRI student's death: 4 friends, 2 watchmen held

The Delhi Police on Monday claimed to have unravelled the mystery shrouding the death of 21-year-old Anmol Sarna at an apartment complex in south Delhi’s Kalkaji last weekend.

Sources told HT that two watchmen, identified as Surender Bali and Naresh Mishra, who attempted to stop him from ‘terrorising the neighbourhood’ on that night, have been arrested under Section 302 of IPC (murder). Four of Sarna’s friends Praneel Shah, Shivank Gambhir, Madhav Bhandari and Rhythm Girhotra were also arrested and booked under the NDPS Act.

“We have cracked the case and have evidence to prove our contention that the victim was murdered by the men who have been arrested,” said Deepak Mishra, special commissioner police (law and order).

The non-resident Indian student’s family, friends and eyewitnesses who saw him convulsing as he was bundled into a PCR van hours before his death, however, cried foul.

Witnesses said there was more to his death than met the eye. “There was no blood on his head even after he engaged the two watchmen in a scuffle,” said Ajit, a resident. “Where did the gash that killed him appear from suddenly when he reached AIIMS?”

“If it was a fight, why did only Anmol suffer injuries and no one else?” asked Shivalika Midhu a friend. “We saw visible injury marks only on Anmol’s chest and his body that clearly meant that he had been dragged and mercilessly assaulted.”

Others like Prateek Jindal questioned the intent of those present at the party. “When the ruckus started around 11, why were the police not informed earlier?” he asked. “The police, instead of taking him to one of the several hospitals located in the vicinity, took him to AIIMS and that too very late.”

According to details accessed by HT, two PCR calls were made on that night. The first of these had been made around 12:05 am by a senior citizen about an attempted house break-in while the other — the one which the police actually responded to — was made at 12:15 am.

A PCR van entered the vicinity of South Park apartments at 12:25 am and took around 46 minutes to cover an estimated distance of seven to eight kilometres from the spot to AIIMS.

This was the response time logged by the unit that prides itself on having transported the victims of the December 16 gang rape from MG Road to Safdarjung Hospital — a distance of more than 13 km — in just 25 minutes.